RICKER: botanical activity in district of COLUMBIA 489 



Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz* prepared the first 

 list of District plants in 1804, the forthcoming publication of 

 which was announced by him in 1805, but for some unknown 

 reason it never appeared. 



The first actually published list of District wild plants was 

 given by David B. Warden^ in 1816. While there are numerous 

 notes on introduced cultivated plants in this work by Warden 

 the nine pages of local wild plant names relating to 130 species 

 were furnished by Jose Francisco Correa da Serra" Portuguese 

 minister to Washington, but w^ho resided most of the time at 

 Philadelphia and succeeded Benjamin S. Barton as lecturer on 

 botany at the University of Pennsylvania. 



In 1817 a sufficient number of residents of the District being 

 interested in botany, a public notice of the intention of forming 

 a Botanical Society was given, and on March 13, 1817, a meet- 

 ing was held for this purpose at Davis's Tavern. Dr. John A. 

 Brereton, an assistant surgeon in the U. S. Army, was called 

 to the chair and John Underwood appointed Secretary. A com- 

 mittee of three, consisting of Rev. Dr. James Laurie, George 

 Watterson, and Dr. Alexander McWilliams, was appointed to 

 draw up a constitution for the Society, which was called the Bo- 

 tanical Society of Washington.^ The Society held meetings 



* FiTZPATRiCK, T. J. F. Rafinesque, a sketch of his life and bibliography. 

 Des Moines, Iowa, 1911. 



* Warden, David Baillie. A chorographical and statistical description of the 

 District of Columbia. Paris, 1816. Dedicated to his friend Mrs. Custis. He 

 had served as a U. S. consul in France. 



« Jose Francisco Correa de Serra, born at Serpa, Portugal, in 1750, assisted in 

 founding the Portugese Academy of Sciences and was made perpetual secretary. 

 He left Portugal for France in 1786 on account of political troubles and went to 

 England in 1797 where he became secretary of the Portugese embassy. He 

 came to New York in 1813 and received his appointment to Washington in 1816. 

 He was called home in 1820 and elected to the Cortes. Baldwin's correspond- 

 ence to Darlington in 1815 says that Philadelphia was much pleased with the 

 lectures of Chev. Correa da Serra. 



^ The records of this society were found by Mr. James Anglin, the predecessor 

 of the present book firm of W. H. Lowdermilk & Co., among some secondhand 

 books and presented to Prof. Lester F. Ward about 1881 or 1882. On the death of 

 Professor Ward in 1913 his library was given to Brown University. The Trustees 

 of that Institution granted a formal request for these records from the present 

 Botanical Society of Washington. After a careful study of the records the 

 writer was authorized by the Society to deposit them for safe keeping in the 

 Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress. 



